This is the kind of market I remember from my childhood. While I cant cope with the bargaining that shopping in such markets entails, its great to visit one once in a while. Recently went to Karwan Bazaar in Dhaka with two friends to take some photographs to capture the hustle and bustle, vivid colours and the vitality of such markets.

I don’t normally post incomplete work here but I’m away on a longish holiday (back in Sep) starting today. Posts here might be irregular. Wanted to put up something that I’m excited about in case it is a longer break in between posts than usual. Hoping to finish this and do a few more in this series when I return. Will write more about “Running with the Bulls” with the post on the finished piece.

36″ X 30″ acrylic on canvas. This is based on one of the inspiring photo refs taken by Oochappan. Used with permission.

I was delighted to receive an invitation from Nahid Osman of Art Club Bangladesh, to participate in the Annual UNWA Exhibition which will be held on the 7th of December 2007 at the Pan Pacific Sonargaon Hotel, in Dhaka.

Here are the two pieces that I have entered. The photos and my resume have been submitted to the gallery and the paintings handed over to the framer earlier this evening. The Portrait is for sale at the exhibition and the two men heading to the field for a days work is the entry for the Fundraiser.

Like this:

I first noticed him standing across the road, arms akimbo, watching us take photographs. After a while he came over unasked and posed confidently for Anil. He had this glint in his eyes, a wide open smile showing teeth stained with betel nut juice and a look suggesting we were bananas taking photographs of people passing by. And when I saw the photographs I was thrilled as Anil had captured him beautifully on film.

This piece gets its name from an old hindi song called “Paan Khaye Saiyan Hamaro” since it was on my mind when I was painting. There’s been a long tradition of eating Paans ( betel nuts, anis and other mouth fresheners rolled into a betel nut leaf ) in South Asian culture. There are mentions of paan as early as the 3rd century in the Kamasutra. It is supposed to be a digestive and a mouth freshener but is an acquired taste. Those who indulge swear by it. My husband is a big fan. A few Paan related clicks for those who’re interested in finding out more.

This was one of my favourites for the longest time and Ramesh’s too, probably for different reasons. I’ve known that Kishori Amonkar is one of Ramesh’s favourite classical singers ever since I first met him. I found this photo ref of Kishori singing in the Maurya Hotel magazine. The minute I laid my eyes on it I knew I wanted to paint it. The photographer had captured an intensity that transported you to a place where you could almost hear her sing.

I was using acrylics at the time and this is a part of the series that was painted on the cardboard that our shirts came back with from the laundry with! I found it to have the right rigidity and texture. The size, roughly 11″ X 8″ was not too intimidating. I spent many pleasant afternoons painting. Churned out quite a few as I could complete them in one sitting usually. I knew then that I wanted to pursue this further.

I had taken some drawing lessons in Feb and was stuck on wanting to paint but couldn’t/hadn’t taken the first step. And it was around then that I came to visit my sister in July 2004. She sort of nudged me to it by giving me a large

canvas (4′ X 3′), her paint supplies, an easel and space in her studio. And that seemed to have been all the encouragement I needed. I painted over 2 days pausing only because i hoped the paint would dry the next day.

The first effort didn’t quite go the way I wanted it to and each subsequent effort seemed to steadily take it away from the original. In the end, I felt that the first effort had been the best! But that’s not as important as the the fact that I fell in love with the feel of painting and decided that this was something that i wanted to pursue.

And when a few months later I was stuck in a hotel, remembering this experience pushed me to locate an art supply shop and start painting in earnest. I chose acrylics having decided that oils took too long to dry and turpentine would be toxic in a closed room :D